FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Translating to Civilian. Contributor John Holst with tips on making your military experience speak English, and it isn’t all Greek to him: “Skills translation is a tough job in any industry. Military skills translation for transitioning vets can be even more cumbersome. Hiring managers, the ones staffing space operations teams, might approach the task of who they hire with what they know. If a program or hiring manager representing the company is one of those space operators who never conducted operations then the company is blind to the other potential space operators out there. How does one increase the chances of becoming the clear choice in the land of the blind?”
2. Security – things are getting worse. Contributor Ashley LaGanga explains, “The decline in security is due, in part, to the changing structure of al-Qaeda: once-independent terrorist groups across the globe have affiliated with al-Qaeda, making the organization decentralized, however cohesive. ‘I see more groups; more fundamentalist, more jihadist, more determined to kill to get to where they want to get,’ Feinstein said. Chairman Rogers alluded to frustration over the battle between the public and government intelligence operations on domestic surveillance, and its consequences.” Also, the “Jobs for Heroes Act,” IT Security Improvements Required, and Next Week in Congress!
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Everything you wanted to know about Nelson Mandela, and should have known, but were afraid to ask. New York Times’ Bill Keller with the whole story: “Mr. Mandela’s quest for freedom took him from the court of tribal royalty to the liberation underground to a prison rock quarry to the presidential suite of Africa’s richest country. And then, when his first term of office was up, unlike so many of the successful revolutionaries he regarded as kindred spirits, he declined a second term and cheerfully handed over power to an elected successor, the country still gnawed by crime, poverty, corruption and disease but a democracy, respected in the world and remarkably at peace.”
2. “Afghanistan After the Draw Down”: Read it. Council on Foreign Relations contributors Seth Jones and Keith Crane’s vision of Afghanistan Future: “The report specifies two main missions for the remaining U.S. troops and maintains that the commitment should not be open-ended. A majority should be assigned to train, advise, and assist Afghan national and local forces. Smaller numbers of troops should be tasked specifically with conducting strikes against terrorists by killing or capturing high-value targets, working with high-end Afghan forces in Taliban-controlled areas, and using unmanned aerial vehicles to conduct intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and occasional strike missions.”
3. Just call our name, and we’ll be there. Reuters’ David Alexander reports, “Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel toured a U.S. warship in the Gulf on Friday and declared Washington’s commitment to Middle East security, despite policy differences over Iran and Syria that have angered Gulf allies. . . . ‘This region is dangerous, it’s combustible, it’s unstable,’ Hagel said. ‘But having a steady American hand in this region can help our allies and reassure our allies.’”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. DARPA’s $2 million anti-hacker prize goes to . . . . NextGov.Com’s Aliya Sternstein reports, “The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the test tube branch of the Pentagon, announced the Cyber Grand Challenge on Oct. 22. The winning team will take home $2 million for creating an unmanned hacker-halter that finds and repairs bugs in software connected to a network, without disrupting the software program.”
2. Contractor cap explained. GovExec.Com contributor Charles S. Clark analyzes the new contractor pay cap: “In a memo quietly published in Wednesday’s Federal Register, the White House procurement chief instructed defense and civilian agency heads to raise the cap on taxpayer funds that can be used to reimburse contracting companies for the pay packages of top executives. Beginning with contracts let in fiscal 2012, the maximum reimbursement level is $905,308, an increase of $190,000. The cap is based on a formula mandated by law, according to the memo from Joe Jordan, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy.”
